Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sweet Shawlettes by Jean Moss

I was very excited when Jean Moss asked me to be part of the blog tour for her new book, Sweet Shawlettes. Shawlettes is a a word that's been used a lot in the last year or two. Normally it's used to describe a small shawl just covering the shoulders. In this book it means various designs that cover the neck and/or shoulders. There are shawls, capes, scarves and other pretty things to adorn and warm your neck.

Sweet Shawlettes is divided into 4 chapters called 'country', 'couture', 'folk' and 'vintage'. There's a variety of designs covering various techniques making the book suitable for all knitters. The designs are so inspiring and will hopefully inspire you to try new techniques.

The designs range from 'necklace style' scarves such as the Garland Necklet

and the Evergreen Scarf to more substantial 'neck warmers'. Both these scarves look like so much fun.

As a lace lover, my favourite design in this book has to be 'Mantilla' which is a Spanish inspired shawl. When I first looked at the photos I thought this was a rectangular shawl but it's actually worked in the round. If I had time this design would be on my needles straight away.

The gorgeous Vamp Boa is another one of my favourite pieces from the book. It's knitted in Rowan Kidsilk Haze which is a gorgeous yarn. If you like making gifts for your friends, I think this would be perfect. Kidsilk Haze comes in such a huge variety of yummy colours, you'll be spoilt for choice when choosing your colour combinations.

The Bronte Fichu is another lace shawl I like. As the name indicates it's inspired by Wuthering Heights. The pattern does not have charts and looks easy enough for a lace novice to tackle.

There are plenty of non-lace pieces I like in this book too. This chunky looking cable cowl, Drift, is perfect for chilly winter days. It's knitted in Rowan Big Wool which makes it a very quick knit. Most knitters should be able to knit up one of these in a weekend. I know Christmas is a way off yet but this is a good item to put on your Christmas knitting list - it's quick, fun and fashionable.

The Penumbra Cowl is a piece of knitting magic. Look at those stripes. Aren't they pretty?

This cowl uses shadow knitting to create an optical illusion. This is definitely on my to knit list. I'm determined I'll take a project designed by someone else on our holiday to Spain in the summer and I think this may be it.

There are capes in the book too. The Purple Patch Shrug is perfect for spring and summer. If, like me, you like buttons and have a button stash this is the perfect opportunity to show off some of your pretty buttons.

Animal prints are always popular and this Kitty Capelet is a perfect example. Perfect to warm your shoulder from fall through to spring and it's knitted in Rowan Felted Tweed which makes it even more perfect.

As well as being a fantastic designer with years of experience, Jean also runs knitting and gardening tours. I'm very keen on travelling and as a teenager my plan was to become a travel agent, I'd like to combine my passion for knitting with my passion for travelling one day. Jean agreed to answer some of my questions and I started by asking her about her knitting and gardening tours.

Jean, please tell us more about your Knitting & Gardening Tours:

Our
tours were born out of a desire to share some of my favourite places with other
knitters. Back in 2000 I was invited to do a workshop at the Rowan Mill in
Holmfirth to a group of lovely American visitors on a UK tour hosted by Vogue
Knitting. My partner, Philip Mercer, and I were struck by the
fact that their American guides were not familiar with deepest Yorkshire at
all.

Reasoning we
could do that, we launched our own programme of tours, initially in the UK,
but now further afield to Morocco last year and Ireland this year. We only
visit places we know well, so that we can offer our visitors
a personal off-the-beaten-track experience. This was made possible in
Morocco by the fact that we have a family member who has lived in Casablanca
for many years.

Our aim
is to offer the very best of the British knitting scene and at the same time visit
beautiful gardens.. Although knitting and yarn feature heavily in
our tours, I'm an avid gardener, so the idea was to combine my two
passions in one holiday. We also try to mix in great food, quirky people
and places, and local musicians. The aim is to create a
house party atmosphere, where our visitors can unwind with kindred spirits,
rubbing shoulders withtop designers like Alice Starmore, Sasha Kagan,
Martin Storey, Erika Knight, Debbie Bliss, Sue Duckworth, Debbie Abrahams &
Sarah Hatton.

Some of
our people started a special Travellers with Jean Moss group
on Ravelry, where you can
speak with past and present participants and get their
feedback. Friendships are made and cemented, and many
come back year after year. This is why we’re constantly on the
lookout for new locations. Morocco last year, Ireland this year,
next year we're considering Amsterdam and the Peloponese in Greece - two
other destinations we know and love.

What's
your favorite knitting technique?

This changes all the time as I'm a technique junkie. There's so
much to learn in knitting and you can never know it all, so with this in
mind I try to make each design a mini-tutorial for at least one technique. That
said, my fave of the moment would be shadow knitting.

Has the
internet affected your design career? How?

The
internet has changed everything. When I started I saw myself as a fashion-led
knit designer, producing fair isle, aran, lace and intarsia sweaters which
were difficult to knit, had limited production and therefore had a very high
price point. However, the cult of the knitted stitch has superseded the
fashion angle now. Knitters are into techniques, relaxing with their
knitting and sharing the fruits of their labours with their friends and the
web is a fantastic tool for facilitating this. If you look at the most
successful books on knitting right now they are all about techniques – there
are far fewer books which are purely collections of designs. Initially, as I
was working with several US design houses and also selling my own
collections, my main interest was to produce couture pieces, but
recently I consider each design from a more knitterly point of view, striving
to combine fashion with interesting knitting for all abilities in my
patterns.

What's
on your needles right now?

I’ve
always got several swatches on the go for current designs. At the
moment there are various projects, either for magazines, workshop
samples or future books. However, when I’m not working I love to
knit mindlessly. As my work involves a lot of head work, I tend to knit no
brainers for pleasure, favourites being garter stitch baby sweaters, as in
the last five years my kids have started having babies
of their own. I have to admit to being a product as well as a
process knitter and tiny garments are far more likely to get finished! I love
being surrounded by adazzling array of colourful yarns which lift my spirits
every time I look at them. I often grab a ball, cast on a
manageable number of stitches, pick an easy stitch and just let the yarn
shine – et voilà, before you know it, you have a beautiful wrap.

I’m in
full swing swatching for my next book now. At this stage I can’t say a lot
about it other than it’s another Taunton book, developing one aspect of Sweet
Shawlettes and applying it to small projects

I hope you'll agree that this sounds like a great book. Taunton Press has agreed to give away a copy of the book. To be in with a chance of winning, please leave a comment telling me what would be your favourite knitting tour destination. Make sure you leave the comment before midnight UK on Sunday 18 March and I'll announce the winner next Monday. You also need to leave either your Ravelry name or a contact e-mails so I can contact you if you win. If you don't want to wait for the give away, you can buy the book on Amazon.

Thank you to Jean for asking me to be part of this blog tour. Go and visit the blogs below to read their review of Sweet Shawlettes. Each blogger looks at the book from a different angle and I've found it very interesting reading through the blog posts.

I'll leave you with the Polperro Cape, which is inspired by a small, very pretty fishing village near where I live in Cornwall. Polperro is special to me as it was one of the first places Simon and I went for a walk when we were first going out. It's also my Mum's favourite place to visit when she's here and my favourite place to buy handmade fudge. Maybe I should knit the Polperro Cape for my Mum. Her birthday is not until November so it's doable.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to publish a former magazine design, which would have fitted perfectly in to Jean's Sweet Shawlette book.

My dream destination would have to Estonia. I've been captivated by the delicacy and beauty of Estonian knitting after seeing samples and photographs brought back by a friend who took part in a cultural exchange.

Such pretty designs - and such a variety. There are so many traditions in the world that I'd love to explore. My dream trip would be to go to the Andes and learn everything from spinning to weaving to knitting. I'm fascinated by the old handmade techniques; I'd love to learn some of them before they're lost.lindaran (on Rav)

I don't know if this is what you meant, but I would like my knitting tour to stop at various places because of knitting technique, or yarn source. I think my favourite place to stop would be Peru. Watching the locals gather the fibre for their yarn, and watching it go through the various processes until it ended up in a piece of wonderfully coloured knitted work.

Wow, my dream knitting destination...hard to choose which one I'd go for!California - to meet a very special knitting friend who inspires me daily.The Andes - to see and hopefully learn their techniques for knitting, and weaving.New Mexico, Arizona & Utah - to learn the traditional Navajo spinning method as well as weaving.

my ideal tour destination would be somewhere steeped in knitty history - Isles off Scotland for instance, somewhere to combine the beauty of both the yarns and patterns inpsired by the surroundings.somewhere nice to "walk" for fresh air and inspiration with plenty of yarn to knit with - nice food and great wine and terrific company from fellow knitters would complete it a dream destination!I like the shadow and stripe shawlette patterns in book too!Happy knitting,SewIknit2 (Sue)

I have two knitting destinations on my wishlist: Toronto, because I hear on podcasts about all the exciting knitting shops there, and Portland, Oregon, which seems to have everything I love: Knitting shops, quilting shops and great secondhand book stores!